Installing Wicd as your Network Manager.

To install the latest version of Wicd, add the following repository to your sources list at /etc/apt/sources list.

deb http://apt.wicd.net gutsy extras

Add the signing key with:

wget -q http://apt.wicd.net/wicd.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Reload apt or Synaptic and install Wicd. Under Applications>Internet choose Wicd. Locate your wireless connection and enter your encryption details. Under preferences choose "wext" as the WPA supplicant Driver. Hit connect.

To get the tray icon loading automatically on boot go to System>Preferences>Sessions and in the Startup tab add a new entry called "Wicd", with "/opt/wicd/tray.py" as the start command. Save and reboot.

If all goes wrong, to reinstall the default Network Manager, simply reinstall network-manager and network-manager-gnome (which automatically uninstalls Wicd in the process). You may need to connect via Ethernet to receive these updates....however, in some cases, there may already be a copy in the /var/cache/apt/archives.